Similar to Nic (RPS in peace), I am both beguiled and maybe just a little riled by how much Tarsier’s Reanimal looks like the studio’s previous Little Nightmares games. Once again, it’s a game about small children in sinister headgear travelling through a collapsed and raggedy storybook world of ogres and abductors. Still, Tarsier have a magnetic capacity for icky monster designs – shout out to Spider Sheep in the trailer there, who absolutely won’t be getting an eye-popping animated Marvel spin-off – and Reanimal is something of a departure once you peel back the layers of suppurating flesh.
It’s strongly co-optional, with a choice of Boy or Girl character inspired by It Takes Two, and has a more open-ended, Zelda-ish world, with optional areas to visit by rowboat. As narrative director David Mervik explained to Nic at announcement: “What if we could get that sense of adventure – with a slightly diminished scope than Windwaker – with that thick claustrophobic dread that you feel in, like, Silent Hill 2.” Ooh. Nic concluded that he was counting the days. Now we know how many of them to count: the game’s out on February 13th 2026.
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The announcement accompanies the release of a demo on console. It turns out that demo has been on Steam this whole dang time, and I missed it. Confound my evidently fading wits! Anyway, here’s what the demo involves, according to said Steam page: “players start at the very beginning, including the reunion of orphaned siblings trying to survive the most dire circumstances. The Boy and The Girl, our protagonists, then begin their desperate search for their missing friends together. Explore eerie environments such as the Mill and Trainyard, and uncover the first fragments of the dark mystery that binds this unsettling world.”
You might prefer to hold off and experience the whole thing in one go. I strongly advise this, actually. Tarsier’s games don’t tend to be very long, and are none the worse for it. See you in February, Spider Sheep.
